Backed by strong fundamentals and brighter economic prospects, tippers are at the forefront of driving buyers to choose smart, value-oriented products, gradually dumping out the traditional cost-conscious buying patterns.
Physical infrastructures and energy forms provide the underpinnings for our contemporary societies. Roads, highways, bridges, railway lines, building construction, and other infrastructural developments are predominately taking up the lives and blood of mankind, while power generation and quest for a variety of energy sources bear out a majority of revenue-generating economic activities taking place across the globe.
In emerging countries like India, growing road construction, infrastructural development projects, establishment of newer coal mines and mineral quarries, and civil construction activities are of tremendous importance to the growth and consolidation of allied industries, including that of construction equipment and commercial vehicles. In the CV industry, in particular, the demand for tipper trucks is directly proportional to infra development activities, as they are the prime movers in material transportation, construction and mining sectors.
In 2018, the Indian CV market is on a bullish spree, with analysts predicting that the market will reach its pinnacle this year in terms of volume sales, with double-digit growth likely. An excellent growth trajectory has also been set for the upcoming year as well. Construction sector is perhaps the biggest growth driver, accounting for over 70 per cent of sales.
Thus, naturally, the medium and heavy-duty tippers in demand for construction applications now contributes roughly about 30 per cent to the overall heavy commercial vehicles sales in the country. This class of trucks logged around 60,000 units last year when the industry growth rate was around 6.5 per cent YoY. With the Q1 of this year recording more than double the previous demand, it undeniably the ‘tipping point’ for tippers in the domestic market.
Trends and takeaways
Where there’s more demand and growth, there’s a brighter scope for product evolution and improvements. The tipper segment in India is undergoing dramatic transformation in recent times, both in terms of diversification of products to cater to various applications and price points and evolution of trucks in themselves technologically. Gone are the days when tippers were considered as bare basic work mules, a class that doesn’t necessarily warrant any premium-ness or technological goodies.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that tippers are the flag bearers in the CV industry’s pursuit for modern and smarter products, even a step ahead of on-road haulage trucks. Truck makers are fast expanding their tipper stable to incorporate a plethora of axle load configurations and engine power options, especially in the mid-premium ‘value’ segment that aims to strike a balance between affordability and premium comfort.
Such ‘value’ trucks are proliferating in the 6×4 25-tonne and 8×4 31-tonne GVW tipper classes, and their respective market response is also quite impressive. They are fairly loaded with essential comfort and practicality features, including air-conditioned and air-suspended cabins, adjustable seats, tiltable steering, driver information system, to name a few. Telematics and on-board vehicle diagnostics systems are fast catching up in this space, even outrunning rigid haulers and tractor trucks, as customers emphasis more on optimum vehicle utilisation and fleet monitoring.
Buyer awareness on using the right vehicle for the right purpose couldn’t be any better, as they preference these days are informed on various parameters like application, geography (terrain), nature of materials transported, reliability and ease of maintenance, etc. They prefer shorter tippers and 6×4 variants for surface transportation of soil and mineral bulk for construction activities, especially box tippers, while 8×4 variants are opted for light mining and off-highway activities. The 10×2 and 10×4 tippers are at the end of this spectrum, beyond which mining contractors invest on off-highway rigid dumpers of 35-100 tonne payload. They are increasingly seeing the advantage of using these mining dumpers in place of an army of on-road tippers, more so when the quantum of earth or mineral ore extracting at the site would span for many years.
Interestingly, there occurs a shift in demand towards higher payload capacity products even within both these classes of on-road tippers and off-highway dumpers. For instance, when a 10×4 tipper offers about 25 per cent higher capacity than an 8×4 solution, buyers are easily recognising the lower TCO advantage and higher product utilisation ratio associated with the former option. In off-highway dumpers, there is a shift in demand towards 150, 190, and 240 tonne variants in recent times, although in lower volumes.
On the whole, the sheer volume of construction activities taking place in the country and mining operations gradually opening up to momentum, the need for sophisticated haulage equipment with optimum payload, fuel economy and efficiency, and effective productivity and vehicle utilisation becomes corollary.